04-09-2016, 10:25 PM
may these words be the first to find your ears
the world is brighter than the sun now that you're here
the world is brighter than the sun now that you're here
Illum was so unlike his blue sister. Where she was wild and brave and eager to explore new places, be-it physically or simply through the eyes of others, Illum was content to stay at home in the sand and sun with his parents. He loved their closeness, their gentle smiles and quiet eyes, the way they smelled of warmth and dust, of fireless smoke. He was especially close with his father, their bond forged thicker each time their shadows swam together. Once, Heartfire had shown him what he looked like in his father’s eyes, and he swore he could almost feel the affection radiating from the blue stallion. It made him forget the times he thought he caught something dark swimming in Shahrizai’s eyes when the shadows seeped from the dark of his satin skin.
Today was different though, he’d asked Heartfire to show him one of her places outside the Desert. He’d seen all of the same places she had- she shared everything with him, but being there would be different. For Illum, it wasn’t enough to look at the memory of something. He wanted to feel the soft ground buckle beneath his feet, feel the sun on his skin and taste the scent of those enormous green trees when the pine-scent swept past him on the wind. He loved what Heartfire could do, loved the worlds she showed him. There was never a time, when she came up beside him to touch her nose against his neck and trade his eyes for someone else’s, that he had ever wished she hadn’t. Friction did not exist between them.
He reached over to touch his mouth to her shoulder, his lips nuzzling a small patch of white where it freckled against the blue. “Where will we go today, Heartfire?” He asks in a quiet voice, his green eyes soft and gleaming where they settled on her face. Again he found himself thinking of the green, of meadows full of grass and brush, of swaying trees whose tops tickled at the blue skies. He remembers a place with a stream, remembers loving the way the water glistened like there were trapped stars beneath its surface. But he says none of this aloud because anywhere will be perfect, so long as it isn’t more sun and sand. He still isn’t used to how the sand feels when it collects in the joints of his wings and between the black and white feathers.
Today was different though, he’d asked Heartfire to show him one of her places outside the Desert. He’d seen all of the same places she had- she shared everything with him, but being there would be different. For Illum, it wasn’t enough to look at the memory of something. He wanted to feel the soft ground buckle beneath his feet, feel the sun on his skin and taste the scent of those enormous green trees when the pine-scent swept past him on the wind. He loved what Heartfire could do, loved the worlds she showed him. There was never a time, when she came up beside him to touch her nose against his neck and trade his eyes for someone else’s, that he had ever wished she hadn’t. Friction did not exist between them.
He reached over to touch his mouth to her shoulder, his lips nuzzling a small patch of white where it freckled against the blue. “Where will we go today, Heartfire?” He asks in a quiet voice, his green eyes soft and gleaming where they settled on her face. Again he found himself thinking of the green, of meadows full of grass and brush, of swaying trees whose tops tickled at the blue skies. He remembers a place with a stream, remembers loving the way the water glistened like there were trapped stars beneath its surface. But he says none of this aloud because anywhere will be perfect, so long as it isn’t more sun and sand. He still isn’t used to how the sand feels when it collects in the joints of his wings and between the black and white feathers.
Illum